Munurmunuh

I Can't Say I'll Change ~ Hellbound Glory

I always assumed the point of them was just to mute open strings, to save one's right hand the bother.... oops?

My much-missed and -modded Squier Matt Freeman. Pro Steels and a Dimarzio Model P, it made a fantastic sound and had bags of character - the feel of it matched the tone (Only sold because my knackered shoulder's happiness depends on ultralight basses)

My Perfect Cousin ~ Undertones

Rock Me Amadeus - Falco

When I got my G&L SB-1, I discovered that the upper horn was a tiny bit shorter than what I was used to, and that my wrist was having to twist a little more than usual to reach the first frets. A strap lock added the ½" that made all the difference 🤓 Instant improvement in comfort.

Googling the bass would have been quicker than typing that question

From my experience of gazing at G&L listings, this will be Chechen / Caribbean Rosewood. If you want your G&L fretboard to have a more uniform shade, they also offer Indian Rosewood and Ebony.

Shame they don't do the 35-95 or 50-110

Inc. delivery for a single set of Roto Bass Bonners £19.50 Amazon £22 GAK £23 Strings Direct £26

Whilst shopping around for a set of Roto Bass, I came across Bonners. Only a small range of bass strings, but good prices, sensible p&p, a decent checkout process, and very prompt delivery. Happy customer.

Undercover of the night ~ Rolling Stones

G&L have replaced the underperforming neck on my SB-1. Hoping to make sure they gave me a worthwhile replacement, I got them to fit a set of 50-110 Roto Bass rounds at the factory. However, they sent it to me with a maxed-out truss rod and an action a lot higher than is any use to me. The first thing I did was replace the strings with a lower tension set to Pro Steels, and meddled with the saddle heights. It's now vaguely playable for me. Since its now clear that the G&L factory is currently a basket case, I'm not going to spending another 6 months apart from my bass nor another ££££ on the shipping back to the States. This thread is giving me ideas. First, I'm going to fit a 35-95 set of Roto Bass, see how the neck settles down with just 130 lbs of tension on it, see if the action gets low, see how much I miss the heavy strings. Then a pro setup. Looks and sounds great, obviously. Just hard to play .... .... and I'm worried that the truss rod is another turkey, not actually capable of keeping the neck stable longterm, no matter what strings I fit.

Echo Beach ~ Martha and the Muffins

If insane is the correct word for the 760FL 43-60-82-104 set, will we be calling the 760FS 45-65-85-105 immoral, the 760FM 49-69-89-109 perverted and the 0760M 52-73-95-110 depraved ? I use a 45-65-85-105 set of flats and they seem unproblematic to my dainty, arthritis-laden fingers.

I put a square grid over the photos, with guidelines at going over exactly the same frets, thus ensuring I'm comparing like with like — I'm taking no notice of the size or shape of the body, purely looking at the relationship of the pickup to the scale length. The Jazz neck pickup is closer to the neck than the Martin M neck pickup, by approximately the width of the pickup I used the same method to double check that the California Central has its pickup in the Stingray spot. Which leads me to this request..... * Has anyone got a Central strung with nickel plated rounds? If so, by gently backing off the bass and treble, and by pushing the mids a little, is it possible to get a nicely rounded tone? Or do the pickup and the preamp have a baked in tone that fights against that sound? I've read that the pickup is wired in series, so I have hope..... (The few demos there are of the Central are not very interested in exploring that sound, which isn't a surprise.)

I've just been putting a photo of that alongside a regular Jazz — did you mean that both pickups on the Martin M are a bit closer to the bridge? Because that's how it's looking to me from the stock photo

One thing I noticed with La Bellas, both the FL and the FM, is that their real qualities come out only when they're played quite firmly. As someone who usually just tickles the strings, I found even the FL were obliging me to play harder than I liked, as my fingers sought out the best sound. I don't recall either of them shedding an initial stiffness. (Chromes I find the opposite - they take a few days to find their flexibility, but ring out with only a gentle touch.)

I like phrase "phase cancellation" for the hole in the sound created by the mids from the two pickups cancelling each other out. Insertion loss sounds like something unfortunate to do with condoms

I recall a recent ish thread about someone getting Sandberg to give another of their models the Superlight treatment. And so I'm considering their California Central 4 string done like that. Humbucker in the Stingray spot (but wired in series) plus 3-band eq with passive option.

I just double-checked on the Sandberg site - they do give a couple of "approx" figures for their Superlight active jazz: 3kg for the 4-string, 3.6kg for the 5-string

I once saw a virtually brand new built to order L-2000 on sale. Despite being empress/pawlonia, it was 8 lbs - not what you expect when paying the extra $100 for the alternate wood. As vkk says, they're not committing to anything. Poor sod waited half a year and didn't get what they were hoping for. Tough.

People are always sceptical about these featherweight G&Ls not having neckdive. Clearly the ultralight tuners are important, but now I'm wondering if that monster bridge at the other end of the string is half of the equation